Sunday, May 22, 2016

In it, author Emily
Bell said that Facebook (and other forms of social media), hasn't just
"swallowed journalism, it has swallowed everything. It has swallowed
political campaigns, banking systems, personal histories, the leisure industry,
retail, even government and security. The phone in our pocket is our portal to
the world."

To that list I would
add model railroading.

There was a time not
so long ago when the only way to get model railroad information was in print:
Magazines like Model Railroader,Railroad Model Craftsman,Canadian Railway Modeller and (the
long departed) Model Railroading and Rail Model Journal. (Along with a few other
specialty publications.)

Slowly, as the
Internet took hold, the model railroad conversation began to move online
to the Atlas Forum (now gone), Railroad Line Forums, Model Railroader’s various
forums, Yahoo groups, and others.

Today, however, I
think the conversation is moving to Facebook.

I recently joined
Canadian Railway Modellers on Facebook.Being a member of the group is like being at a local hobby shop (remember
those?) where people bring their questions, show off their modelling, and generally
discuss the hobby.

When someone has a
question about DCC, a certain kind of rolling stock, a trackplan, or anything
else, they post it and—very quickly—there are answers.

Sometimes people just
want to post photos of their layouts or their modelling for people to enjoy.

It’s quite unlike a
printed magazine, which only comes out monthly (or bi-monthly), has limited space,
and which requires people to write exhaustive how-to instructions or detailed
text for a modelling or layout article.

(I include Model Railroad Hobbyist in that list. Even though it's online, it operates like a print magazine on the Web.)

It’s also easier than
a blog, like this one, which needs to be regularly updated, fact-checked and have fresh
content to be relevant to readers.

On Facebook, people
just post stuff—details and schedules be darned.

As a former editor of
a model railroad magazine, I can appreciate the benefits of this new way of
sharing about the hobby.

Few people have the
time, patience or skill to write a long article that is suitable for publication.

And only a few have
the ability to take publication-ready photos.

Facebook is a great leveler.
It doesn’t care about grammar or the quality of photos. People whose modelling
would never be good enough for a model railroad publication can still post on
Facebook and get lots of likes and encouragement.

Now, there are
downsides to Facebook. It isn’t searchable, for one thing. A great photo or
modelling tip can quickly disappear and be hard (or impossible) to find again.

Then there are a few
people who like to post too much . . . enough said about that.

But in the main, it’s
a boon for the hobby—although maybe not for model railroad publications. But
that’s true for all print media, big or small.

Friday, May 20, 2016

"With brave faces,
they did their final runs, then symbolically, they cut the mainline,"
was how a reporter chronicled the end of the O scale layout, which had
been in the same location since 1946.

Well, that was then and
this is now: Next weekend, May 28-29, the club has its first public open house
to show off progress on the new layout, called the Central Ontario Railway.

And what a magnificent
layout it is! Even though it isn't nearly done, and much of it is in benchwork,
you can see the promise and potential.

Not all of the layout is new; club members incorporated elements
of the old layout, including the major yards with their hundreds of switches and
thousands of feet of handlaid track.

As they
say on their Facebook page, "with a bit of year of room prep, benchwork,
trackwork, electrical, DCC integration and lots of effort, the 'patient' is now
off life support and is slowly coming back."

Unfortunately, living in
Winnipeg means I can't be there for the open house. But I wish them well in
this, and all future endeavours.

Saturday, May 14, 2016

A
show stopper at a model train show doesn’t have to be big. Sometimes it can be
very small, like Malcolm Anderson’s Big Trees narrow gauge layout.A
model railroader since the early '70s, Malcolm was a teenage member of the
Vancouver Model Railroad Club in the top floor of the CN Station. Today he
lives in Regina, after living in various parts of Canada.Until
about five years ago, he had a small HO scale layout that he took to shows.
Then he was inspired to try an On30 layout.

Making
a small narrow gauge layout fit Malcolm for a couple of reasons. First, he has
always lived in smaller spaces, so he has never had a large layout. Second, he
has always been more interested in structures and scenery more that operations,
so a small layout that features those things was a natural thing for him to do.The
layout is only 60 by 66 inches—he says many people can’t believe how small it
is, considering all the detail it contains.

It’s
made of six 18 by 30 inch modules made from 3/8th inch baltic birch cabinet
grade plywood. The sub-roadbed is 1/2 inch plywood. The modules connect
together with hinges with removable pins which ensures complete alignment every
time.The
scenery is made of extruded Styrofoam to keep the weight down. There is minimal
rock work; most of the layout is covered in forest undergrowth. Bushes in the
undergrowth are made from furnace filter material, pulled in half and painted
flat black. Malcolm then sprays on adhesive and adds ground foam, along with
twigs left over from tree making.This,
he says, provides a “flexible thick ground cover.”

The
locomotives and rolling stock are made by Bachmann. “They are affordable and
dependable,” he says, adding “my loco's have logged about 100 hours and are
still going.”Malcolm
finds working in a larger scale easier on the eyes when detailing the layout;
the small size of the modules makes for easy handling. “I can work on a module
in front of the TV upstairs instead of being a basement troll,” he says.

As
for the name? The layout has about 50 trees, between 80-100 scale feet high
with the tallest one 200 scale feet. Malcolm uses various mediums to make
trees, but the most success comes from using 2 x 2 straight grained cedar
boards. He cuts the wood to a rough conical shape on the band saw, then
finishes them on a belt sander with 60 grit paper.Next,
he carves the trunk bark detail with a saw blade, using it like a scraper.
Cut-offs from the cedar boards are used to add root detail to the base of the
tree. The branches are made from caspia, which is used for floral displays.

When
done, Malcolm stains the trunks with an india ink/water stain mix, then sprays
the finished trees with dark brown acrylic paint. After that, he uses spray
glue to affix ground foam to the branches. When done, he uses artist spray
fixative to make sure the trees don't shed too much.Malcolm
says it takes about five hours to make each tree, but he doesn’t mind—it takes
his mind off work.All
but one of the structures are scratchbuilt. The station is all styrene and is
patterned after Woodland Scenics HO scale kit. The general store is a
much-modified Banta kit. Other buildings are made by using foam core covered
with coffee stir sticks.

Malcolm
has shown the Big Trees layout in Regina, Moose Jaw, Edmonton and Calgary. People often ask him how the trees survive travelling from show to show; they do
need occasional re-flocking and repair, he says, but “it is surprising how
resilient they are.”For
Malcolm, making the portable display layout is a way to share his love for
model railroading—and show off the possibilities of narrow gauge. “The layout
is designed as a show layout,” he says, with the two separate loops of track on
two levels keeping viewers interested.

The
vertical scenery makes it easier for tall and short people to view the layout,
he says, and the trees make the viewer have to look into the layout to see the
details and trains.“It
was a lot of fun building the layout and I keep adding and tweaking the scenes
I time goes along,” he says.

Saturday, May 7, 2016

The club, located in
the city of Selkirk, just north of Winnipeg, traces its origins back to 1993. That’s
when two copies of a model railroad magazine were stuck together and delivered
to the same mailbox—prompting the recipient to learn there was another model
railroader in the town.

That led to a
meeting, which led to more meetings with more model railroaders, and then to
the formation of the club. In 1995 the club found a home in the Selkirk Journal building.

Since that time the
club has been home to two HO layouts, along with two N and one O scale layout.

But now the club, and
the layouts, are gone. Falling membership meant the club could no longer afford
the rent.

That’s too bad. The
Selkirk Model Railroad Association was a great part of the model railroad scene
in Manitoba.

About Me

Click here for a topical index to the blog.
Click here for an index by year to the blog.
Click here for an index of Great Canadian Model Railroads.
Click here for an overview of the layout from the December, 2009 Railroad Model Craftsman.
Click here to view videos of the layout on YouTube.
Click here for a track plan.